My supervisor sent me a rotation plan several weeks before the start of my elective and he asked me in advance if I have any special interest in a particular subspeciality or just wanted to have a broad insight into the exciting field of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. As I have never done a rotation in Plastics before, I decided for the latter and therefore I was with a different consultant with a particular focus every week, which made my experience as diverse as possible.

So I accompanied physicians, who treated adult or pediatric hands, head and neck abnormalities, skin cancer, sarcoma, burns and breast reconstructions in the following 8 weeks.

My normal workday usually began at 8 am with attending the morning round, where all cases were discussed for the day, and ended between 4 pm and 5 pm. After rounds I went with my consultant to see the patients and I got the opportunity to take over patients on my own, taking the history and examine them. Once all patients were rounded, the surgical part began and we went to theatre, where all the surgeries were done.

Most of the time I watched them doing the procedures, but I also got asked quite often if I wanted to scrub myself and join them on the table, which I very enjoyed. The medical practice was very advanced and up to date but some aspects like scrubbing in theatre was a bit behind and I was a bit surprised how low hygienic standards were compared to Austria/Germany/Switzerland.

But except of that I was very astonished how skilled and experienced every consultant was in their particular field and how they treated their patients with such care and empathy.

They spend much time for their patients and try to answer all of their questions and concerns. Depending on the consultant I also visited different hospitals like the Freeman Hospital, which had a focus on head and neck, or private clinics, where the consultants had their private patients, giving me the possibility to get an authentic insight into their working life. I was also surprised how much time they are also spending on teaching us students regardless how busy the service was, this was also very different compared to  Austria / Germany / Switzerland.

All in all, I felt quite involved in the team and the consultant always introduced me to their colleagues and encountered me on eye level, which made my experience very enjoyable! In general hierarchies are pretty flat there and students can ask the consultants every question without thinking twice like in my home country.

The accent in the Great North is a bit different and sometimes difficult to understand. But if you are quite firm in the English language this shouldn´t be a big problem and you are still able to understand them. Overall, most of the people speak a clear and lovely British English.

There was no official teaching in the department but if you ask your personal consultant or have a special interest in a topic, they were always keen to take their time after clinics to tell you more about it. The RVI is a teaching hospital of Newcastle University and an important centre for many diseases in the North East region with high tech equipment and state-of-the-art care. All specialties were offered.

The hospital is a tertiary referral hospital providing 673 beds and is also an important research institution. The Great North Children´s Hospital is part of the RVI and one of only 14 major children´s medical centres in the United Kingdom. Therefore our patients were from all ages, both male and female and from all social stratums.